A growing national warehouse investor and landlord targeting small businesses as tenants has tapped Santa Ana for its first California location.
Columbia, Maryland-based WareSpace recently closed on the purchase of 2601 S. Garnsey St., a 122,000-square-foot warehouse located between Dyer Road and Warner Avenue, roughly a mile west of the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway.
The building sold for $31.8 million, or $260 per square foot, according to CoStar records.
Cerritos-based McDonald’s Packaging was the seller of the building, which was reported to be empty at the time of sale.
Chip Wright and Ross Fippinger with CBRE brokered the deal.
It’s the first reported location in the state for WareSpace, which has 13 open locations nationally with 10 additional spots coming soon, according to the company’s website.
Mini Warehouses
WareSpace officials said they will oversee a revamp of the 45-year-old Santa Ana property, with an eye on smaller local businesses—such as eCommerce operators, contractors, light manufacturers and other entrepreneurs—as tenants.
“Unlike traditional industrial buildings that cater to large tenants, these are right-sized warehouses for Orange County entrepreneurs and small business—offering features typically reserved for larger facilities: loading docks, drive-in access, climate control, and shared conference rooms.”
Leases are expected to have terms of six to 12 months, and “one simple monthly payment instead of complex triple-net leases,” the company said.
Spaces in its building will range from 200 to 2,000 square feet, and the new owner expects the Santa Ana building to hold about 110 small businesses.
OC “has incredible entrepreneurial energy, and we’re solving the warehouse space problem for small businesses who need professional infrastructure without the complexity of traditional industrial leases,” CEO Levi Cohen said in a statement.
The upgraded property’s expected to open this fall.
PE-Backed
WareSpace is backed by Stamford, Connecticut-based private equity firm Jadian Capital, which reportedly invested $100 million in the firm when it was founded in 2022.
Similar to office coworking firms, the company’s spaces include a variety of shared amenities, like kitchens, conference rooms and lounge areas.
Along with a warehouse focus, the company’s strategy of owning their buildings outright differs from those coworking firms, who typically lease their office spaces from the building’s owners, and then sublease that space to smaller users.
Other coworking firms with an industrial space focus include City of Industry-based Cubework, whose portfolio includes spots in Irvine and Buena Park; its individual spaces for rent can top 50,000 square feet.
